Remembering a day of betrayal: Green Party of Canada marks first anniversary of broken promise on electoral reform

Remembering a day of betrayal: Green Party of Canada marks first anniversary of broken promise on electoral reform

February 01, 2018

(OTTAWA) — Today marks exactly one year since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau abandoned a central campaign promise — to make the 2015 federal election the last held under the first-past-the-post electoral system.

“This betrayal of the trust that Canadians, myself included, put into this government, will never be forgotten,” said Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada (MP, Saanich-Gulf Islands). “At a time of growing cynicism towards our political system — particularly among youth — the Liberal government dashed the hopes of millions of Canadians by rejecting overwhelming evidence of the need for electoral reform. The current system that gives a party with less than 40% of the vote 100% of the power is undemocratic and must be replaced by a proportional system.

"In 2015, the candidate Justin Trudeau made the promise of electoral reform without doing his homework. In 2017, the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau broke that promise without doing his homework. Every excuse he offers ignores the submissions from experts in electoral fairness, thousands of Canadians’ submissions to the Special Committee on Electoral Reform, and hundreds of thousands of submissions through the government's own survey. It is time for Mr. Trudeau to do his homework and make good on his promise," concluded Ms. May.

Ms. May will participate in a press conference today at 1 PM alongside Nathan Cullen, NDP Critic for Electoral Reform (MP, Skeena-Bulkley Valley), and the President of Fair Vote Canada, Réal Lavergne, to discuss the future of electoral reform in Canada.